2 New Orleans cops secretly recorded conversation with sergeant involved in Danziger case, documents show

At least two New Orleans police officers secretly recorded conversations with a sergeant who participated in the shootings on the Danziger Bridge, capturing him as he incriminated himself and other colleagues, according to new court documents.

View full sizeAlex Brandon, Times-Picayune archiveSix current or former NOPD officers are facing trial in the post-Katrina shooting on the Danziger Bridge in which Lance Madison, above, lost his brother to a fatal shot. Five other officers have already pleaded guilty to roles in the shooting or subsequent cover-up.

The allegations are contained in a 23-page court brief, filed Tuesday, that offers a peek into the evidence that federal prosecutors have gathered against the six current or former NOPD officers facing trial in the post-Katrina police shooting and subsequent cover-up. Five other officers have already pleaded guilty to roles in the incident -- in which six civilians were shot by police, two of them fatally -- and will testify against their colleagues.

The filing quotes from taped conversations between Sgt. Robert Gisevius, one of the six cops to be tried in June, and two other current or former officers. In those conversations, the filing says, Gisevius elaborates on his role in the conspiracy and expounds on ways to maintain the cover-up. The new filing does not identify the two officers whose conversations with Gisevius were recorded.

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Three current NOPD officers -- Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, Sgt. Robert Gisevius, and officer Anthony Villavaso -- and a former officer, Robert Faulcon, were charged in July with civil rights violations in the bridge shootings. Two other officers, Sgt. Arthur Kaufman and former Sgt. Gerard Dugue, are charged with helping cover up the case.

According to the court filing:

In one "in-person conversation" caught on tape, Gisevius allegedly railed against his colleagues and their inability to maintain an air-tight cover-up. The conversation was taped by a "member of the original cover-up conspiracy, whom Gisevius believed still to be a co-conspirator," the brief says.

Gisevius said federal agents "could link a lot of people" to the conspiracy and that "everyone might be sunk."

He blamed Kaufman for being "f***ing dumb enough to put the report" on his computer, which federal agents later seized in a raid on the NOPD's homicide office.

He mused aloud about whether co-conspirator Ignatius Hills was "the leak" to the government. Hills eventually signed a plea deal.

He assured the cooperating officer that "the seven of us won't talk," a reference to the so-called Danziger 7, the group initially charged in a state case that later fell apart.

In another taped conversation with a different officer, Gisevius grew suspicious. "I don't know if you are wired or not," the filing quotes him as saying. Despite his wariness, Gisevius allegedly made statements incriminating other officers, but denied his own involvement in the conspiracy.

On the secretly recorded tapes, Sgt. Robert Gisevius elaborates on his role in the conspiracy and cover-up, the government says.

"I'm not concerned about the tapes because I've listened to them," and the government's filings take words out of context, Hessler said. "I'm not concerned about the way the government portrays the tapes. The tapes will be played in court and the jury will be able to understand what is being said."

Hessler declined to elaborate.

Kaufman's attorney, Stephen London, called the government's new filing a clear attempt to taint the jury pool.

"The government is intentionally leaking and putting stuff in the public arena because they are afraid they have a weak case," London said. "There in no reason they wouldn't put this under seal if they actually believed in their case."

London asserted that prosecutors want to try the case in public, and said the media is complicit in their scheme.

Along with details about the taped conversations, the government's new filing alleges that Dugue and Villavaso made various statements incriminating themselves and others that the government hopes to introduce at trial.

Dugue, after initially standing by the NOPD investigation, gave a second interview to FBI agents in September 2009, the filing says. In that interview, prosecutors say, Dugue drastically changed his tune, expressing grave concerns about the Danziger investigation, about the integrity of Kaufman's work, and about the veracity of the witnesses and the officers involved.

According to the court filing:

Dugue told agents in the later interview that he had wondered whether two alleged eyewitnesses really existed and found it "fishy" that they were never taken to the station to give statements.

Dugue concluded that Bowen's story was inconsistent "in a big way," and that his explanation for not picking up supposed civilian weapons was "absurd."

Dugue questioned whether Ronald Madison had ever shot at police, as all the officers alleged.

Dugue said he was "uncomfortable" that Kaufman altered a police report used to justify the arrest of Lance Madison. In addition, Dugue said he believed that Kaufman did not conduct an honest investigation.

Former Sgt. Gerard Dugue, after initially standing by the NOPD investigation, gave a second interview to FBI agents in September 2009, the filing says, in which he drastically changed his tune.

"I think the brief demonstrates that Gerard Dugue did nothing wrong," Kelly said. "He was never on the Danziger Bridge. He reasonably relied on the statements of trusted veteran police officers."

Villavaso, meanwhile, allegedly confided in a man who was cooperating with prosecutors, telling the man that he saw Sgt. Kenneth Bowen use a handgun to shoot one or two rounds into the stomach of a wounded victim lying on the bridge.

Villavaso also allegedly implicated two indicted investigators -- Dugue and Kaufman -- in an interview with FBI agents in early 2010. Villavaso told agents that the two investigators "put stuff in the report that we didn't do," according to prosecutors.

Attorneys for the officers said they will respond to the government's filing soon.

Villavaso's attorney didn't return phone calls.

The central part of the government's new filing is an argument that the various incriminating statements should be admissible at trial. A Supreme Court ruling, Bruton v. United States, set forth guidelines on so-called finger-pointing in trials -- situations when one defendant's admissions ultimately implicate another defendant.

The Bill of Rights guarantees criminal defendants the right to question and cross-examine their accusers in court, but that becomes more complicated when the "accuser" is also a defendant.

In the filing, prosecutors ask that U.S. District Court Judge Kurt Englehardt rule the statements admissible. With regard to Dugue's statements -- which they argue implicate himself and others -- prosecutors ask that the judge either separate his trial or empanel a second jury to deal solely with Dugue's case.